The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of an MoU between the Permanent Mission of India to the WTO (PMI), Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL) of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI) within The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. The MoU will provide valuable academic and research opportunities to the employees of CTIL and the Department of Commerce in the field of international trade and investment law.

During the pandemic, India has reported the highest increase in the use of AI at 45%, as compared to other major economies (the US at 35%, the UK at 23 % and Japan at 28 %). In fact, AI startups in India attracted total funding of $836.3 million in 2020. Also, despite the total number of high-value funding shrunk, the companies that received funding almost doubled in 2020 compared to 2019,” according to homegrown independent Transaction Advisory firm, RBSA Advisors. According to the study titled ‘Artificial Intelligence & Its role in Delivering Economic Value to Indian Enterprise, investment in AI has accelerated in India during the pandemic and the country has a potential to be a global epicentre of AI. IT services and technology sectors contribute to more than 60% of the AI market, followed by BFSI, engineering and retail.

Government of India has announced the National Hydrogen Mission for making hydrogen roadmap for the country. Department of Science & Technology (DST) has launched Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program to support research on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell that aims to develop transformational technologies to reduce the cost of hydrogen production, distribution & storage, diversify feedstock available for economic hydrogen production, enhance flexibility of power grid, and reduce emissions through novel uses of low-cost hydrogen. DST has supported twenty-nine projects and two Energy Storage Platforms on Hydrogen under this program.